A boutique hotel will suspend operations today and move its restaurant to takeaway service only to slow the potential spread of Covid-19, it announced yesterday.The Rosedon Hotel asked most of its staff to stay at home for the next month as the island braced itself for the impact of the pandemic.A spokesman for the hotel on Pitts Bay Road in Pembroke, which runs the Huckleberry restaurant, said: “In an effort to help mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 virus and to protect our team members, who are our most valuable asset, Rosedon Hotel will close all hotel operations on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.“With the requirement of a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arriving passengers, we believe the prudent thing to do is to temporarily cease hotel operations.”It explained that the restaurant would stop providing on-site dining today and a drive-through or takeout service called Huckleberry@Home will instead be offered from 11am until 8pm every day.The spokesman said: “In order to maintain safe ‘social distancing’ all guests will be required to remain in their vehicle or on their cycle while on the property.“Our team members will be utilising safe distancing and sanitary procedures consistent with best practices to ensure that we can continue to deliver this service for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.“The majority of the Rosedon and Huckleberry team are being asked to stay at home for the next 30 days and to practice ‘social distancing’ and safe sanitary practices in order to be ready to return to work as soon as the pandemic passes.”It added: “Rosedon Hotel will create a ‘healthy quarantine’ on-site with a number of our hotel and restaurant team who have volunteered to stay on the property in a controlled environment.“All team members who have volunteered to remain on property will be working to implement our Huckleberry@Home concept as expeditiously and safely as possible.”Rob Bruni, the hotel’s assistant general manager, told The Royal Gazette that about five guests occupied three rooms yesterday with one due to leave last night.He explained that other guests said they expected to leave earlier than planned and that dining and other hotel services would remain available to them until their departure.Mr Bruni said: “We did have other bookings and we were very proactive in the past few days, the past week, reaching out to those guests, letting them know that this may be a concern.”He added that many guests took heed of the warning and cancelled their reservations.The hotel employs a staff of about 50 and the press release explained that for those who were asked to remain at home “where applicable, they will be working remotely and participating in online training in order to make the most of their time away from the property”.The spokesman added: “In keeping with our commitment to ethical leadership, all staff have been guaranteed their regular wage through March 31 and are being encouraged to apply for two weeks of vacation time for the subsequent period through to April 14, in order to ensure that they do not face financial hardship, in the midst of all of the other uncertainty that Covid-19 is causing.”Mr Bruni added that some employees were offered “safe housing” even if they were not scheduled to work over the 30-day shutdown.